Stop-motion device



July 1 1924. 1,499,868

W. S. MILLS ET AL.

STOP MOTION DEVICE Filed July 21. 1922 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 v N. Q Wm .frweralor:

July 1, 1924.; 1,499,868

v w. s. MILLS ET AL STOP MOTION DEVICE Filed July 21 1922 s Sheets-Sheet z Jul 1, 1924!. 1,499,868

W.S. MILLS ET AL STOP MOTI ON DEVI CE Filed July 21, L922 3 Sheets-Sheet z Patented July 1, 1924s ITE QFFICE.

STOP-MOTION DEVICE.

Application filed July 21,

To (fill whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM S. MILLS and HECTOR E. BrsAILLoN, citizens of the United States,,residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Stop-Motion Devices, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to an automatic stopmotion device for sewing machines or the like, and which is set into action by a knot orlump in the thread before such knot or lump arrives at a point where it might cause damage, as by causing a breakage of the thread or bending of the needle when such knot or lump reaches the needle of a sewinginachine. The present invention re- -lates to certain improvements on the stop motion devices covered by our U. S. Patents No. 1,359,266, dated November 16, 1920, No. 1,380,003, dated May 31, 1921, and No.

1,421,844, dated August 8, 1922, as also our ending application Serial No. 569,64c6, filed une 20, 1922; the present invention providing means whereby not only will the stop motion device be rendered operative to stop the machine when a knot or lump occurs in a thread, but will also stop the machine when a thread or needle breaks, as will hereinafter appear. V

In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the stop motion device fully shown and described in our applica tion No. 569,6&6,'referred to, somewhat mod- ]ified to adapt the same for use in connection with a clutchstop motion device instead of the brake stop motion device as set forth in our said application. Fig. 2 is anele- ,vation showing the present invention applied to a well-known form of sewing machine. Fig. 3 is a detail plan view of certain parts shown in Fig. 2. Figs. 1, 5 and 6am detail views showing certain parts of the mechanism for operating the stop mo tion device when a thread breaks. Figs. 7 and 8 illustrate a modified form of the invention.

Referring to the drawings, 12 denotes a bracket or support which'may be attached to a work bench conveniently adjacent to a 1922. Serial No. 576,484.

sewing machine in connection with which the improved stop motion device is to be used, said bracket having an upright 13 and a standard lt affording bearings for a rock shaft 15 provided at its forward end, inside of upright 13, with an arm 16 carrying a plate 19 provided with a curved slot 20 entered by a pin 17 at the lower end of a latch-lever 18 pivoted -to said upright 13 and having a bevelled or rounded upper end adapted to be engaged by a finger 21 on a holding latch 22 fixed to a tripping rockshaft 23 journalled in bearings afforded by the upwardly projecting lugs 24 at the upper end of the upright 13. V

The lower wall of the curved slot 20 is turned down sharply at one end afiording a notch 20 which receives the pin 17 when the parts are in working position, said pin being moved downward into said notch when the parts are being set for the normal operation of the machine, by the co-action of the curved upper wall of said slot and the momentum of the latch lever by which said pin is carried. Thusthe manual operation of the rock-shaft 15 will, by means of the slotted plate 19 engaged by the pin 17, move the arm of the said latch lever inward beneath and behind the holding finger 21- the machine is running.

The tripping rock-shaft 23, in the form of the invention herein shown, carries a tripping arm 26 having a plurality of narrow slits 28 permitting the free passage of the threads but not of knots or lumps in the threads, as in the construction shown in our Patent No. 1,380,003, hereinbefore referred to, so, that said trip-ping arm will be tripped or moved downwardly slightly when engaged by a knot or lump in a thread. The slits 28 have V-shaped or inwardly tapering openends 29 which serve to facilitate the entrance of the threads in said slits, and which also serve, in conjunction with the thread guides 30 and 31, arranged on opposite sides of said tripping arm, topermit the escape of the knots or lumpshfrom the trip-ping arm when the latter isv moved downward in the tripping operation, vtherebyavoiding breaking the thread by the ma chine, which is objectionable, even though the thread has to be broken by the attendant to remove the knot or lump.

The holding latch 22 is normally held in yielding contact with an adjustable stop-pin 32 tapped in a lug 33 on the upright 13 and held in any desired position of adjustment by a lock-nut 34. This holding of the latch 22 against the top of the pin 32 is effected by the coil spring 35 connected at its upper end to a hooked arm 36 on the rock-shaft 3 and connected its lower end to a lug 3? on bracket 38 adjustably attached to the upright 13 by a set screw 39 passing through a slot in said bracket.

The construction and co-relation of the holding latch 22 with its finger 21, for engaging the latch lever 18, the spring 35 and its connection with the rock-shaft 23, by which the latch 22 is carried, are the same as in the machine of our Patent hlo. 1,424,844, hereinbefore referred to, these parts being clearly shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings of said patent.

The construction thus far described is the same as the corresponding parts, with corresponding reference numerals, in our application No. 569,646, above referred to, and which parts are intended to render the stop I. motion operative to stop the machine when a lump or knot occurs in the thread, the construction now to be described serving also to render the stop motion device operative when a thread breaks.

Fixed to the rear end of the rock-shaft 15 is an arm 40 provided with a slot 41 and a padded foot piece 4-2. Fixed to the work bench or table conveniently adjacent to the bracket 12 is a bracket comprising a. base piece 43 and uprights Journalled in said uprights 4-4 is a rock-shaft 45 provided at one end with an arm 46 entering the slot 41 of the arm 40, said rock-shaft having at its opposite end an arm 47 to which is rigidly attached an extension 47 having a laterally projecting arm or pin 48.

The driving shaft 49 of the sewing machine, in the construction shown, is provid ed with a fixed clutch wheel 50 adjacent to which is a loose pulley 51 having a pin 52 for engagement with said clutch wheel 50. Pivotally mounted on an arm 53 fixed to the base plate. B of the sewing machine is a :clutch-operating hand lever 54 the inner end of which is provided with an upwardly extending lug 55 adapted tobe engaged by the laterally extending arm or pin 48 carried by the extension 4" of the arm 47 on the rock-shaft 45. The arm 40 may be utilized as a setting handle in placing the stop-motion parts in the position which they will. occupy when the machine is running, and in so doing the torsional coil spring 58 on the rock-shaft 15 will. be given additional tension, as will be understood, one end of said coil spring being engaged with fixed part and the other end thereof being con nected with a collar 15 on the rock-shaft 15, and by the proper adjustment of which collar any desired tension may be given to the said torsional spring 58, thus storing up any desired amount of power in said spring to be utilized to operate the stop-motion de- From the foregoing it will be understood that when the arm 26 is tripped, either by a lump or knot in the thread, or otherwise, the latch lever 18 will be released from the finger 21 on the latch 22, the trippin rockshaft 23 thereby releasing the pin 1 from the holding notch 20 at one end of the cur ed slot 20 on the arm 16, so that by the stress of the torsional spring 58 the rockshaft 15 will be operated to move the arm 40 downward; thereby, through the connections justdescribed, enabling the rock-shaft 45 to act on the clutch operating lever 54 to disconnect the loose pulley wheel 51 from the fixed clutch wheel 50, thereby stopping or arresting the movement of the driving shaft of the machine.

Suitably secured to the bracket arm A of the sewing machine, as by a clamping set screw 56, is a bracket 57 at the lower portion of which is mounted a slide 59 having a slot 59 through which passes an arm 60 of a counterbalanced lever 61 attached to a sleeve 62 pivoted on a fulcrum screw 62 mounted on the said bracket 57, the said lever 61 having a second arm 63 arranged to abut against the end of the slide 59. The slide 59 is provided with a stop screw 64 which, by contact with one end of the bracket 57, will limit the movement of the slide 59 when said slide is operated by the said arm 63. Attached at one end of the slide 59 is a light rod 65 extending from the said slide throughthe arm of the thread guide 31 and past the tripping arm 26, the said rod being provided with a hook 66 partly embracing said tripping arm.

The lever 61 carries at one end a lateral projection 61 provided with a thread eye, and the needle thread 6 runs in the direction denoted by the arrows in Fig. 2 through the thread guide 30, the tripping arm 26 and the thread guide 31, to the thread guide 67, thence to another thread guide 68, thence through an ordinary disk tension device 69 and over a tension block 70, mounted on a rod 71 and pressed upward by a light coil spring 72 encircling the said rod 71. The thread passes from the tension block through thread-eye in the lug or projection 61 on the lever 61, the thread running from said last-named thread-eye to a thread-eye 73, and thence to the needle of the machine. The lever 61 is preferably maintained in the position shown in Fig. 2 by a light spring 74 counterbalancing the stress of the spring 72, (although a weight 74 on said lever 61 may be employed instead of said. spring 74:) so that when't-he thread is passing through the thread-eye in the lateral projection61 the parts will be maintained in the position 'shownin Fig. 2, but should the thread 01' needle break and the thread running betweenthe needle and the tension device 69 thus be sla-ckened or released from the thread-eye in the lever 61, the equipoise of the counterbalanced lever will be disturbed and the spring 74: or weight 749 will move down the end of the said lever opposite the said thread-eye, thereby, through the arm 60, operating the slide 59 which, in turn, through the rod 65, will operate the tripping arm 26 to release the latch lever 18 from the finger 21 of the latch 22, thus enabling the torsional spring 58 to act, through the parts above described, to shift the clutch lever 54 and disengage the clutch parts to stop the machine.

Instead of employing the counterbalanced lever 61 and the slide 59 co -operating therewith, hereinbefore described, the simpler construction for operating the rod 65, illustrated in Figs. 7 and'8, may be employed. In this simpler construction a counterbalanced lever 61 is, attached to a sleeve 62 rotatably mounted on a stud 62 the hub portion of said lever being provided with two depending arms 61 and 61 said arms having offset projections 61 at their lower ends. Located between said projections 61 is the upturned rear end 65 of the rod 65, said rear end of said rod slidin in a groove 57 in the lower part of the bracket 57 and in which groove said rear end of said rod is free to slide. Coiled around the sleeve 62 is alight spring 74 one end of which is connected with the lever 7 61 and the'other end of which is connected with a washer 75 mounted on the stud 75", and which washer may be'secured in any desired position of adjustment by means of a set nut 76. A proper tension is given to the spring 7 1 by a suitable adjustment of the washer 75, so that the lever 61 is counterbalanced by the stress of said spring, under ordinary conditions, but if the thread or needle breaks the said lever will be lifted by said spring and the arm 61 of said lever will draw the rod 65 rearward to trip the arm 26, as in the construction hereinbefore described. With this simpler construction the lever 61 will serve, to a certain extent, as a take-up lever, there being considerable play between th off-set projections 61 and the upturned rear end 65 of the rod 65, and the thread will run directly from the tension device 69 to the thread eye in the part 61 and thence forward to the needle.

From the foregoing it will be understood that the present invention provides means not only for stopping the machine when a knot or lump occurs in a thread, but also that the invention may be utilizedin connection with a brake stop-motion device or a belt shifter stop-motion device, as well as with a clutch stop-motion device, these different forms of stop-motion devices being well-known mechanical equivalents. The invention is therefore not to be considered as being limited to the special constructions shown,'as the invention, as'defined by the claims hereunto appended, may be varied widely, within the province of mechanical skill, without departing from the essence.

or scope of the invention.

Having thus described our invention, we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. The combination with the driving shaft of a thread-using machine, of a stop-motion device for said shaft, and tripping means for controlling said stop-motion device to stop the machine when a thread or needle breaks, as. also wherfa knot or lump occurs in the thread, said tripping means comprising a slotted tripping arm and a member controlled by tension on the thread and operatively connected with saidtripping arm.

2. The combination with a driving shaft of a thread-using machine, of a springcontrolled rockshaft, holding means for said rockshaft, means, comprising an apertured tripping arm through which the thread will normally pass freely, but which will be tripped by a knot or lump in the thread, said tripping arm, when operated, serving to release saidholding means, a stopmotion device, and a thread-controlled member connected with said tripping arm and held in normal position by tension on the thread, said member acting on said tripping arm, when the thread is slackened, to release said holding means and thereby render the stop-motion device active to arrest the movement of said driving shaft; whereby the machine will be stopped either by a knot or lump ;in the thread, or by the breaking of the thread or needle.

3. The combination with the driving shaft of a thread-using machine, of a springcontrolled rockshaft, holding means for said rockshaft, means, comprising an apertured am through which the thread will normesses mally pass freely, but which will be tripped thereby render the stop-motion device ac- HO by a knot or lump in the thread, said trip tive to arrest the movement of said driving ping arm, when operated, serving to release shaft, whereby the machine will be stopped said holding means, a stop-motion device, either by a knot or lump in the thread, or

5 and a thread-controlled lever held in norby the breaking of the thread or needle.

mal position by tension on the thread, said In testimony whereof we affix our signa- 15 lever being connected with said tripping tures. arm, and serving, when the thread is slack- WILLIAM S. MILLS. ened, to release said holding means and HECTOR E. BISAILLON. 

